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WELCOME TO ROUND TWO: This weekend begins the second round of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, the Contender Round. With his win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Joey Logano heads into the round as the second seed behind his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski. Logano scored three top-five finishes – a win and two fourths – in the first three races of the Chase. Logano was the only driver to accomplish that feat and his average finish of 3.0 was the best of all 16 Chase contenders over the course of the first three events.

BEFORE THE RESET: Logano’s fourth-place finish at Dover last weekend kept him ranked second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings prior to the points reset for the Contender Round. Logano was just four points behind Keselowski in the point standings before the reset.

THE NUMBERS CONTINUE TO GROW: With Keselowski’s second-place finish at Dover and Logano’s fourth-place finish, the duo each earned their 13th top-five results, the best of all drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth are all next with 11 top fives a piece. Logano’s 18 top-10 finishes, one behind his career-best single-season mark that came last season, ranks second in the series behind Gordon’s 19.

A PAIR OF FOURTHS: In Logano’s last two appearances at Kansas Speedway, the 24-year-old driver has come away with a pair of fourth-place finishes. Those are Logano’s only two top-10 results at the 1.5-mile track over the course of his 10 career starts. Logano has qualified well at the track, starting inside the top 10 six times, including second in the spring race earlier this season.

A PAIR OF HOME GROWN 22 CREW: Two members of the “22 Crew” grew up in the Kansas area. Mechanic Eric “Stretch” Bailey is from Olathe, Kansas, which is just 20 miles from Kansas Speedway. Front tire carrier Dylan Dowell is from Fowler, Kansas, located about five hours southwest of the race track.

car

Primary Chassis: PRS-911
Last Raced: Pocono (finished third)
Backup Chassis: PRS-901
Last Raced: Sonoma (finished 22nd as No. 2)

broadcast

Race: Hollywood Casino 400
Track: Kansas Speedway

Date: Sunday, October 5
Race Start Time: 2:00 pm ET
RADIO Live on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90
TV SCHEDULE Friday
1:00 pm ET, Practice (FS1)
5:30 pm ET, Qualifying (ESPN2)
Saturday
11:00 am ET, Practice (FS1)
2:00 pm ET, Final Practice (FS2)

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ANOTHER WEEK AND ANOTHER TOP-FIVE FINISH UNDER YOUR BELT. ARE YOU READY TO START OVER WITH THE CONTENDER ROUND THIS WEEKEND IN KANSAS?

“We just have to keep doing what we are doing. I’m pretty proud to look at the sheet and know that we are the only team in the entire series that got top fives in the first three races of the Chase, and we had the best average finish. I know Brad and his team had the second-best average finish, so I think that says a lot about Team Penske and how we are doing right now. We just need to keep doing what we are doing. No reason to reinvent the wheel. The things we have been doing all year long have been working, so we just need to keep doing things the same way. We can make a few tweaks here and there, and that’s what you need to do to stay competitive. I know we’d really like to go out there and win Kansas or Charlotte so we cannot worry about Talladega and be locked into the next round.”

UNDER THE OLD CHASE FORMAT, YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE WOULD BE IN A REALLY GOOD POSITION RIGHT NOW. DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT AT ALL?

“I was telling someone about that this past weekend after the race. I like the new format and the elimination, but under the old format, we would be one-two, and we would only be four points out of the point leader. That wouldn’t be too bad for sure. It would be fun to chase Brad for the Championship. But there are still seven races left and a lot of stuff can change. We are just focused on one race at a time and this weekend that is Kansas. After that, we will focus on Charlotte and after that Talladega. We can’t look too far ahead because that is what will take you out of this. We just want to do the best we can this coming weekend.”